ALGERIAN PRESIDENT AND PRIME MINISTER SHARE VIEWS

C O N F I D E N T I A L ALGIERS 000789

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/03/2017
TAGS: PREL PARM MNUC IR AG IZ
SUBJECT: ALGERIAN PRESIDENT AND PRIME MINISTER SHARE VIEWS
ON IRAN WITH SENATOR NELSON

Classified By: DCM Thomas F. Daughton; reasons 1.4 (b, d)


1. (C) In separate meetings with Senator Bill Nelson (D-FL)
on June 3, Prime Minister Belkhadem and President Bouteflika
made remarks on Iran, primarily in the context of Iranian
Foreign Minister Mottaki's June 2 visit to Algiers.
Belkhadem observed with respect to Iranian involvement in
Iraq that Arab and Persian societies had been in conflict for
centuries. He indicated that senior Algerian officials had
told Mottaki that all parties must work together to respect
Iraq's unity, sovereignty and stability. On Iran's current
thinking on the nuclear question, Belkhadem said the Iranian
FM had merely stated that negotiations with the Europeans
were continuing. In Algeria's view, Belkhadem reported,
progress had been made on the Iranian nuclear issue, but more
progress was still needed.


2. (C) Belkhadem said Mottaki's Algerian interlocutors had
stressed the GOA's preference for state spending on
developing people rather than weapons. The prime minister
underscored Algerian support for the use of nuclear power for
peaceful and civilian purposes under the supervision of
international regulatory agencies and said Mottaki heard this
message in Algiers. Belkhadem observed that the U.S.,
Russia, France and other countries, including Pakistan and
India, possessed the nuclear bomb. In the case of India,
Belkhadem noted that impoverishment there was great and the
money spent developing nuclear weapons could have been better
spent on education for the Indian people. It was important,
Belkhadem said, to invest in the reduction of poverty,
illness and ignorance rather than financing weapons of war.


3. (C) Later the same day, President Bouteflika told the
Ambassador and Senator Nelson that Mottaki had pointed to
recent discussions in Baghdad and said that Iran welcomed a
resumption of direct contacts with the U.S. According to
Bouteflika, Mottaki underlined that Iran wanted to sustain
the dialogue with the U.S. He added that the Iranian foreign
minister had said that Iran was not seeking to aggravate
tensions between Sunnis and Shia in Iraq. Bouteflika then
said that to be polite he was obliged to take the Iranian's
word in good faith. Bouteflika noted, however, that the
principle of acceptable dissimulation (takiya) was firmly
established in the Shia school of thought, and he warned that
one should be careful of what the Iranians are actually doing.


4. (U) Senator Nelson did not have the opportunity to clear
this message.
FORD